Travel Expenses for College

Today we’re talking about the travel expenses of going to college. When you look at a college’s official COA (the “cost of attendance”) you’ll see a combination of direct costs paid directly to the college, like tuition, fees, room, and board, and indirect costs that are also part of going to school. Those include books, school supplies, living expenses, student loan interest, and yes, travel expenses.

The number you see from a college is going to be an average of students coming from right around the corner and students coming from all the way across the country—or even all the way around the world. The choices you make can drive that cost up or down. That’s where we have to think about the difference between choosing a college that’s a drive away versus choosing a college that’s a flight away.

If you choose a college that’s a flight away, it’s not as simple as one roundtrip ticket that gets the student to college in the fall and home in the spring. There’s move-in, and typically one or both parents want to help move their child into college. That means plane tickets. You’re not staying in the dorm, so that’s a hotel stay. You also have to get the student and all their stuff from the airport to campus, which means a rental car. And you’re not leaving a kid sibling at home, so that’s another roundtrip plane ticket too.

Then everyone wants to come back for parents’ weekend. Everyone wants to come back for a football game. The student has to get home for Thanksgiving break and then back for final exams, and then back home again at the end of the fall semester.

In the spring semester, we basically do the whole thing in reverse. The student flies out, but the parents might want to go out for a basketball game. The student might want to fly home (or elsewhere) for spring break and then back for the rest of the semester. Then one or both parents, maybe with a kid sib3.) ling, want to come out to help the student pack up the dorm and fly back at the end of the spring semester.

And that’s going to be for four years. Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.

So consider these things when you’re deciding how far from home you’re willing to let your student go to college.